T.J. Hooker: Cop Series to Get Big Screen Treatment; Will Shatner Be In It?

by Trevor Kimball, July 7, 2009

Yet another William Shatner TV series is heading to movie theaters. This time, it’s T.J. Hooker, the cop show executive produced by Aaron Spelling during his legendary run on ABC. Shatner didn’t get to be in the recent Star Trek reboot, will he be in this movie?

T.J. Hooker revolves around a veteran cop (Shatner) who, after his plainclothes partner is killed in the line of duty, returns to the streets as a patrol sergeant. He’s assigned to train academy recruits and is partnered with a young, headstrong rookie named Vince Romano (Adrian Zmed). Others in the series include Heather Locklear, James Darren, Richard Herd, and Hugh Farrington.

The series ran for two seasons on ABC as an hour-long drama before the alphabet network cancelled it. CBS then picked it up for two more seasons but assigned it to the late night “Crime Time After Prime-Time” schedule, running opposite The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. On CBS, episodes were extended to run 70 minutes. The series finale aired on May 28, 1986 but the network continued to air reruns until September 1987.

There haven’t been any reunions of the original cast but now there’s talk of making a big-screen version of the show — as an action comedy.

Should Shatner be in the movie?

David Foster, Ryan Heppe, and Rick Husky, are producing the project. Foster has produced movies like The Mask of Zorro, The Fog, and Collateral Damage. Heppe worked as an intern for Foster for several years and is currently working with him on a remake of 1986’s Short Circuit and the venerable story of Don Quixote. Meanwhile, Husky created the T.J. Hooker series and was the show’s supervising producer. He’s reportedly been holding onto the feature film rights of the property for years.

Director Chuck Russell, who previously helmed The Scorpion King and The Mask, is in talks to direct the project. The team of Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson are set to write the project. The duo previously authored Tremors, the Wild Wild West movie, the original Short Circuit movies, and the upcoming remake.

Heppe tells Variety that the T.J. Hooker property is ideal for what they have in mind. He said, “The series was the poster child for cop TV shows in the 1980s with great stunts, so we think there’s a fun movie to be made from it.”

The script is still being written but will apparently revolve, at least in part, around Hooker’s relationship with his father. That’s a bit of a departure from the original series concept. However, it seems tailor-made as a way for Shatner to appear in the movie as the father, with a younger actor assuming the title role.

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“There haven’t been any reunions of the original cast but now there’s talk of making a big-screen version of the show — as an action comedy. ”

Why are so many re-makes of classic shows trashed whenever they are re-made? Keep the original Action – Adventure genre of “TJ Hooker” intact, or don’t make the re-make at all! I would never go to a “TJ Hooker ” re-make as an action comedy.